Bill Dickey or Yogi Berra?

[Blackout]

who was better in your opinion

[bigbadwolf]

I'd take either, but Yogi first. He helped his team win more WS rings.

[KCGHOST]

I'd take Yogi first, but Dickey was no chump.

[whoisonit]

Berra was in a class all by himself.
Granted, it was Dickey who tutored him on the defensive art of catching, but Yogi then surpassed his teacher. Dickey was a great catcher. Berra was an all-time great player, period.

[Edgartohof]

Dickey was great, but Yogi was just a little greater.

They were on par as hitters and all, but it's impossible to ignore Yogi's 3 MVP's!

[whoisonit]

it's impossible to ignore Yogi's 3 MVP's!

You bet.
Don't forget his [ God forgive me, for I'm not trying to encourage anyone, I swear ] 10 WS rings.
He is the man that Stengel called "my man".

[Edgartohof]

You bet.
Don't forget his [ God forgive me, for I'm not trying to encourage anyone, I swear ] 10 WS rings.
He is the man that Stengel called "my man".

A perfect set for the man - one for each finger!

[whoisonit]

A perfect set for the man - one for each finger!

Hard to believe, isn't it ?

[Yankeebiscuitfan]

You bet.
Don't forget his [ God forgive me, for I'm not trying to encourage anyone, I swear ] 10 WS rings.
He is the man that Stengel called "my man".

Berra was good. But those 10 WS rings were won with a team, so those WS rings alone do not make him better than Dickey.

How can we decide who was best? Sure statistics say a lot, but many of us did not live in those days.

[bigbadwolf]

Ten World Series rings says it all. The greatest of the great are defined by winning. Always has, is now, and always will be. It was the guys Yogi played with. Yes it was, it was all of them. Poor Dickey, had to play with Ruth and Gehrig.

[Yankeebiscuitfan]

Ten World Series rings says it all. The greatest of the great are defined by winning. Always has, is now, and always will be. It was the guys Yogi played with. Yes it was, it was all of them. Poor Dickey, had to play with Ruth and Gehrig.

Sure, Dickey had good players around him too. But then again: Those WS rings were won by a team effort. They were not won by Berra alone.

Don't get me wrong here. I am not saying that Dickey was better than Berra or that Berra was better than Dickey, but I think it is too easy to say that those WS rings are a decisive factor.

[bigbadwolf]

There is no question that one player or even a few do not win a WS alone. I fully accept that every player on a team contributes to a teams success and or failure. What I believe is that the greatest players over their respective career help their team to the most successes the most often. These players usually play with several different players at almost every position over their career. Some players even play with a few different teams and even in different leagues. One thing the greatest players have and why the game of baseball is played, is for the success of the team over any individual achievement. that is why I believe that the greatest players help their team the most.

[DoubleX]

I think Dickey may very well be the most underrated great Yankee. The guy is solidly among the 10 best catchers that ever played as well as one of the 10 best to have ever donned pinstripes, and yet he's losing out on Yankeeographies to Hideki Matsui?

That being said, Berra has a decent claim to being the best catcher of all time (I'd take Bench and wouldn't begrudge anyone that feels informed enough to say Gibson, but it's very close any way).

[Yankeebiscuitfan]

There is no question that one player or even a few do not win a WS alone. I fully accept that every player on a team contributes to a teams success and or failure. What I believe is that the greatest players over their respective career help their team to the most successes the most often. These players usually play with several different players at almost every position over their career. Some players even play with a few different teams and even in different leagues. One thing the greatest players have and why the game of baseball is played, is for the success of the team over any individual achievement. that is why I believe that the greatest players help their team the most.

I will not say that what you say is not true. But imagine that Dickey would have been on the teams that Berra won the titles with and Berra would have been on Dickey's teams, I wonder what you would have said then.

I just think that one should not look at a couple (OK, five in this case) of WS rings to decide who was the greatest player.

What if a Berra type player would play on a team like last year's Royals for his career. The guy would be good or maybe awesome, but no WS rings. Would that make him a lesser catcher then?

[johnnypapa]

I will not say that what you say is not true. But imagine that Dickey would have been on the teams that Berra won the titles with and Berra would have been on Dickey's teams, I wonder what you would have said then.

I just think that one should not look at a couple (OK, five in this case) of WS rings to decide who was the greatest player.

What if a Berra type player would play on a team like last year's Royals for his career. The guy would be good or maybe awesome, but no WS rings. Would that make him a lesser catcher then?

What I try to do other then looking at stats is to find out what teammates, opposing players/managers had to say about a particular player. For example, I believe it was Paul Derringer of the Reds who thought that Dickey was the best player on the Yankees after the 38 WS. Stengel said, referring to Berra, "I never go into a big game without my man", something like that. Sometimes it helps to do this with players on teams with other great players.